Beyond the Garb thrills at National Theatre

The beauty of this year’s World Theatre Day (WTD) celebrations were the array of plays put in place to mark the day. From 24th to 27th March, the theatre scene in Lagos was alive. It was when theatre artistes put their differences in the cooler to ensure a successful celebration to make artistes feel happy and proud of their profession.

With the new play titled Beyond the Garb written and directed by Ayo Jaiyesimi of the Thespian Theatre Family as the lead play for the show, it was easier to use it to ignite the National Theatre, Iganmu, Lagos, venue of the celebration. The drama was purposely adorned with the necessary ingredients to keep WTD in the front-burner. Jaiyesimi made it clear that Beyond the Garb is a deliberate effort to look at the other side of the Nigerian society, using satire and comedy to dissect a society that is not ready to make progress.

While the drama was on stage, those elements of socio-political indices that distort the flow of progress were put clearer by the artistes. It was mixed with music, dance, songs, drama et al, to bring out the banters in people’s lives. As the artistes prattled, danced, sang and made the audience feel the beauty of the fun in the story, it became clear that comedy can be effectively used to mirror the society.

The drama engaged the people in different stages of rib-cracking humors, embellishing the scenes with serious issues of development. Indeed, the endless conversation harped on the cord of love, unity, peace and progress. What is the role of the ordinary citizen in this onward march to better the society? In other words, the play interrogates the burning issues of socio-political and cultural tendencies where morality is in total abeyance.

Nigeria needs total rebirth. It is time to fight corruption and bring culprits to book. Artistes have to write and engage in works that speak volumes based on these persuasions. A 70-minute work, Beyond the Garb used the story of a monarchy where undue aberration was used to disrupt peace and progress of the people to situate a rudderless society. Thus, the excitement this created helped to send some level of frenzy in the minds of the audience. In a kingdom where the people wish to invite one of their subjects resident in the city to be made a king, will the local people accept him? Will he be able to meet their needs and understand and tackle their predicaments? The intrigues embedded in the play further made it interesting on stage. It was even made more intriguing with the involvement of such wonderful artistes like Owumi Ugbeye, Breakthrough Ibeh, Omololu Sodiya, Ada Onyekpa and others. It was directed by Nissi George and choreographed by Abel Utuedor.

For the celebration to hold, the president of the National Association of Nigerian Theatre Arts Practitioners (NANTAP) Israel Eboh told fellow artistes that time had come for Nigerians to begin to appreciate the works of dramatist, writers, dancers and those who make the entertainment industry bubble. “In the last twenty-six years, NANTAP has worked tirelessly to fulfill its objectives,” Eboh said.

Eboh said further, “we have through our programmes, advocacies and collaborations with cultural and arts agencies and institutions, both local and international, government and private, put the interest of the theatre practitioner on the front-burner of our agenda with a view to creating a most conducive environment for the artiste to ply his trade”, he said.

Generally, the plays which included Osusu done by members of Lagos Arts Council and Moremi by the Crown Troupe of Africa were used to harp on those issues that unite the people together. Nigerians have to come to the realization that theatre is a way of life. It is the mirror of the society and therefore efforts have to be made to preserve and promote those salient socio-political elements that keep the people in one piece.